On the Road Again

Last year during our Great Loop planning we were presented with an opportunity to rent a condo in Vero for the month of March.  We really enjoy Vero in March so it was an offer we couldn't refuse.  We made sure we were in Vero by the end of February and we'd pull off the Great Loop for the month of March - take a break.  We had our golf clubs shipped down, made lots of tee times with our friends Sharon and Greg, lost countless balls - our games are very much a work in progress - made lots of plans with friends, played tennis, took Millie on lots of beach walks, and best of all, we had our children down for a fun-filled week.  

Now we are back on the road - so to speak.  We departed Vero on Saturday, April 1st, and headed to an anchorage in Cocoa Village about 50 miles north.   It felt good to be back on Egret and moving north.  Our trip was pretty uneventful and we arrived in mid-afternoon. After surveying the anchorage to make sure that we avoided submerged gas and power lines, we anchored in about 12 feet of water just off the town docks.  

After getting Millie to shore for her evening walk, we returned to a rather hot and humid boat and decided to turn on the generator so we could get the AC running to cool down the boat.  Within two minutes of turning on the generator, a swarm of honey bees descended on our cockpit. What happened? What did we do? Where did they come from? The Generator? The AC? More importantly, what are we going to do?  And thank goodness we had closed the door in our cockpit! A fellow cruiser who saw what was happening came over in her dinghy to inquire. She was actually a beekeeper and obviously quite knowledgeable on the subject. She reassured us that we were not about to recreate a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's, The Birds - yes we may have been catastrophizing a bit. She went back to her boat and did some research to locate a bee removal specialist.  With the specialist located, we made a plan to meet "The Eradicator" at the dock the next morning at 8:15.   Roger got dressed in long pants, long sleeve shirt, and a baseball hat pulled down tight, and made a quiet but speedy dash through the cockpit to the dinghy.   Once on board, The Eradicator calmly vacuumed the bees - guiding them into the vacuum with his bare finger. If one would stray to his neck he just vacuumed the bee off.  Roger observed from the safety of the dinghy. Chrisy and Millie were behind closed doors in the main salon. Once the Queen Bee was located and secured in a special container, the vacuuming pace increased substantially.  Within half an hour - no more honey bees.  Well almost, there were a few more that Roger bravely vacuumed up.  The Eradicator said that the queen must have randomly landed on the boat and that it did not come from the boat.  That was nice to know.  Glad we don't need to vacuum out the generator or AC unit.  

We had a nice visit from Tom and Tina Osborne, fellow loopers who have completed their loop.

Family fun day on Egret in Vero

Nana and Pops are on an outing to the ice cream parlor with the star. 

John Brittain, friends for over 55 years

Many of those lost golf balls were lost with great cruising buddies Greg Page and Sharon Buerhle.

Egret, ready for departure after a month in Vero. Photo credit to Roz Allen. 

Honey bees swarming the Queen in Cocoa Village anchorage

Hundreds of honeybees swarmed Egret within minutes....

The Eradicator at work

After the excitement at Cocoa Village, we headed on for Titusville (had a great dinner at Dixie Crossings with cruising friends Barb and Doug who we met in 2013),  New Smyrna Beach, (first time here - we hung out with our Canadian Loopers - Yachts of Fun and JEMA) Fort Matanzas anchorage (beautiful anchorage with a raging current), and St. Augustine. 

Millie on her morning jaunt to the beach at Fort Matanzas.

The happy couple at Castillo de San Marcos - the fort in St. Augustine

Fellow Loopers Jeff and Sharon, Yachts of Fun with Jim and Elaine, JEMA out for dinner in St. Augustine

We've been pretty spoiled with our weather for most of the trip.  That luck would end toward the end of our stay in St. Augustine when a massive Nor'Easter would descend on us.  With rain and 25 knots of wind forecasted for the foreseeable future, Chrisy had the good idea to get moving a day ahead of the weather so we raced from St. Augustine to Fernandina, the town on Amelia Island. The reasoning worked perfectly until we arrived in Fernandina and they didn't have space for us on the dock.  We grabbed a mooring ball and rode out the first eight hours of the front bobbing and weaving on a mooring, getting very little sleep.  Honestly, it felt as though we were in a washing machine with high winds and fast currents.  Our luck would return on Easter Sunday when we were able to get a space on one of the inside docks that is really well protected from the prevailing winds.  

Mid-afternoon walk for Millie and we tripped on some live music in Fernandina. Chrisy looking fresh as a daisy; Roger looking like he had a long night on the mooring.